A new research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA, suggests that dizzy spells in middle age may signal of dementia 20 years before the symptoms appear.

In the course of study, the scientists examined 11,000 middle aged people and found that those who had this problem, also known as orthostatic hypotension, were 40% more likely to dementia later in the life.

Study leader Dr Andreea Rawlings says: “Even though these episodes are fleeting, they may have impacts that are long lasting. We found that those people who suffered from orthostatic hypotension in middle age were 40% more likely to develop dementia than those who did not. It’s a significant finding and we need to better understand just what is happening.”